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Trevor Johnston

Education

Overview

Trevor Johnston is an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation. He is broadly interested in the political economy of conflict and development. He works on security assistance and conflict stabilization in the Middle East, with a focus on the Arabian Gulf. His recent work includes projects on peacebuilding and stabilization in Yemen and a series of evaluations of U.S. security cooperation in Africa and the Middle East.

Before coming to RAND, Johnston studied labor and welfare policies in the Arabian Gulf and worked on structural reform in North Africa. From 2015 to 2017, Johnston was a Middle East Initiative Fellow in the Belfer Center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

State Failure and Local Governance in Yemen

Strategic Evaluation of Security Cooperation

Military Modernization in the Arabian Gulf

Grievances and Resiliency in Yemen

Selected Publications

Watts, Stephen, Johnston, Trevor, Lane, Matthew, Mann, Sean, McNerney, Michael J. and Brooks, Andrew, Building security in Africa: an evaluation of U.S. security sector assistance in Africa from the Cold War to the present, (RR-2447), 2018

Languages

Commentary

Americans may soon be able to legally access blueprints for 3D-printed guns. The growing opposition to these weapons shows that potential security threats do not have to be inevitable. The security challenges inherent in 3D printing could be addressed, while the development of industry norms can still be shaped.

Jul 31, 2018 Fox News Channel

Publications

A RAND Corporation study used statistical models to evaluate the impact that U.S.-provided SSA has had on political violence in Africa -- in particular, the incidence of civil wars and insurgencies, terrorist attacks, and state repression.

U.S. security-sector assistance has a mixed record in Africa. RAND experts offer recommendations to promote the success of such assistance in Africa. The recommendations focus on strategies, programs, and their assessment, monitoring, and evaluation.

This Perspective -- part of a series examining critical security challenges in 2040 -- offers a new framework for exploring the disruptive dimensions of additive manufacturing technology and explores which sectors and industries might be most affected.

Empirically assesses how U.S. military presence -- in particular, U.S. troop presence and military assistance -- is associated with the interstate and intrastate conflict behavior of states and nonstate actors.

Quoted

Conventional firearms are certainly going to be the more preferred option and most people have clear access to that. These 3-D printed weapons are severely diminished in terms of their lethality and their durability.

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